Cal Poly looks for a dramatically better result than the last time it faced a Pac-12 Conference opponent when the Mustangs travel to Seattle to take on Washington in a nonconference game Tuesday night.
Coming off a 7-21 campaign, the Mustangs (5-3) have been generally successful this season, having won four in a row. But one of their three losses came at the hands of Stanford, an 80-43 shellacking on the road.
A member of the Big West Conference, Cal Poly won at Pacific 62-58 as part of its winning streak, and is coming off a 72-49 home romp over Portland State. Brantly Stevenson came up big against the Vikings with 20 points, three shy of the career high he contributed to the win over Pacific.
“I’m disappointed that we dropped some games that I thought we had a chance to win, but it shows the resiliency and the maturity of this team and how far we’ve come,” Mustangs coach John Smith said. “Being on a three-game winning streak, we probably wouldn’t have won those games last year … but now these guys have learned how to win those types of games.”
Cal Poly held its own in two recent trips to Seattle, losing 75-62 in 2012 and 77-61 in 2016.
Washington (7-3) split Pac-12 games earlier this month, falling 66-65 at Oregon State before regrouping with a 73-63 home win over Colorado. The latter improved the Huskies’ home record to 5-1, with the lone loss coming against Cal Baptist last month.
Washington is coming off the second loss in its last three games, this one on the road at 15th-ranked Gonzaga. Keion Brooks Jr. (14 points), PJ Fuller II (13) and Cole Bajema (12) all scored in double figures in the 77-60 loss.
Huskies coach Mike Hopkins hopes the experience of having already been surprised at home by Cal Baptist will help his guys focus on rebounding from the Gonzaga defeat.
“This doesn’t define our season,” he said of the Cal Baptist game, which Washington followed with three consecutive wins. “We have to learn from it and get better.”
–Field Level Media